Lesley and David’s Arisaig Woodland Wedding

Not long after Trevor returned from a very fancy destination wedding in Rhodes we found ourselves meeting up much closer to home, on the west coast of the Scottish Highlands, for Lesley and David’s Arisaig woodland wedding at the fabulous Larachmhor Gardens.

In typical Scottish style the spring weather had been great for weeks. The day before wedding Trevor had set up camp at Camusdarach campsite in glorious sunshine and Paula was basking in the sunshine in her back garden a little further down the road. The weather forecast told us that there was absolutely definitely no chance that the weather was going to break and that the days of sunshine would continue unabated. It was so dry, in fact, that there weren’t even any midges (joy of joys!). Absolutely perfect wedding weather lay ahead.

Later that night, however, we were all woken to the gentle pitter patter of raindrops on the roof of my van. Trevor says he was ashamed to admit that he felt smug that he had ignored the forecast and brought along his big umbrella. Stopping at the Green Welly Stop on the way up north to buy the essential Smidge midge repellant. By the way, if you are visiting Scotland and are unfamiliar with midges you really, really should buy yourself some of this. All day in a damp forest neither of us were bitten once. You can read a bit more about midges, and how to deal with them, over on Trevor’s site here.

Lesley-Ann is a good friend of Trevor’s that he met though their shared love of climbing and he was absolutely delighted when she asked him to photograph her wedding in Arisaig. What was even more brilliant was that she also chose Paula as her humanist celebrant once she heard that we had worked together dozens of times and knew the Arisaig-area incredibly well (Paula lives there). We both knew this knew that this Arisaig woodland wedding was going to be special.

Lesley’s fiance, David, has family connections to the hidden gem that is Larachmhor gardens which made it the perfect location for their wedding. Tucked away down a bumpy little lane the gardens were initially started in the 1920s but later abandoned with many of the fine rhododendron species being dispatched to other gardens. More recently however a conservation group, led by David’s father, has been working to bring the gardens back to their former glory. All I can say is that they were an absolutely superb place for an Arisaig woodland wedding!

As the guests, and midges, amassed in the beautiful little copse in the centre of the woodland there was such a great atmosphere. Everyone, apart from the groom David, was very relaxed and sitting around chatting and having a great time. Paula did a great job with the ceremony (as usual obvs.) which culminated in the planting of a tree named Bob. In 20 years of wedding photography this was the first (but hopefully not the last) time I get to see a bride shovelling soil in a wedding dress. [Update – we have been back since and Bob is settling into his new home marvellously].

Although Larachmhor gardens itself is very beautiful we were so close to some of the most stunning beaches in the UK so it would’ve been a shame to not pay them a visit. As usual for a wedding things ran on a little late and the weather was dull and overcast. Lesley, David and Trevor drove along the road a few minutes to the beach at Camusdarach, the perfect spot for some beautiful Arisaig wedding photographs, and went for a little walk for ten minutes just to try and capture some of the rapidly fading daylight. In the end the soft dusky light actually looked beautiful and it made the journey well worth it.

Lesley and David’s Arisaig woodland wedding was such a great and memorable day and we are both very excited about our next wedding there in just a few week’s time!